Schneider among UNC BOG Teaching Excellence Award recipients

Stanley Schneider from the Department of Biological Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences is one of the recipients of the 2016 UNC Board of Governors Awards for Excellence in Teaching.

This annual honor recognizes one professor at each of North Carolina’s public institutions. The 17 recipients were nominated by individual campus committees and selected by the Board of Governors’ Committee on Personnel and Tenure. Each award winner will receive a commemorative bronze medallion and a $12,500 cash prize.

“Stan’s concern for the well-being of students is exemplary, as is his sense of fairness and obligation to give the students the best possible education,” said Martin Klotz, former chair of biological sciences. “His talents and interpersonal skills allow him to stay his very self during interactions with students in and outside the classroom.”

Schneider’s goal is to change the way students think about and live on Earth. “I want them to experience awe and a sense of privilege and responsibility for living on this planet,” he said.

Schneider’s passion for animal behavior, social insects (especially honey bees) and the evolution of social behavior is infectious, and his students thrive under his guidance.

According to Schneider, teaching is a social interaction. It is the contagious enthusiasm of the teacher that captures students’ imagination and helps them dream, he stated. Excellent teachers are rigorous, fair and demonstrate respect for students by holding them to high standards of performance by providing clear, organized and relevant lectures, he added.

As part of his role as instructor, Schneider exposes students to the process of conducting research as he views this as the primary means by which students learn how new information is generated and synthesized into an existing body of knowledge.

Established by the Board of Governors in 1994 to underscore the teaching and to award good teaching across the University, the Board of Governors Awards for Excellence in Teaching are given annually to a tenured faculty member from each UNC campus. Winners must have taught at their present institutions at least seven years.

This past fall, Schneider was named the recipient of UNC Charlotte’s top teaching award, the Bank of America Award for Teaching Excellence.